I have seen photos of some very high quality, advanced knife sharpening on recent forum posts. They remind me of some of the advances pioneered in auto racing. Numerous automotive innovations which began in auto racing would have seemed like overkill for driving the family sedan at fifty miles per hour. Today many of those innovations have become part of everyday family auto technology.
Wootz' photos (nice job, by the way, of both the sharpening and the photos) strike me as quality sharpening well beyond the typical home sharpening or busy farmers market sharpening. To be worthwhile for the sharpener, this quality workmanship would require a very sophisticated customer who appreciated it.
With innovations like his set up app and modified knife jigs, I can see these advancements gradually filter into everyday sharpening.
We are all enriched by the pioneering work of our sharpeners.
Ken
Ken, though you've put me to the blush, but your analogy is so true about us all going into such a detail about sharpening here, I love it.
There are certainly many sharpeners out there who outmaster me, but also way more many high-end knife owners who lack skills and equipment to sharpen themselves, and live closer to me than them :)
Wootz, this will probably bring on a major blush, however, this reminds me of a news item here in the Northern Hemisphere many years ago. One of the local universities was considering dropping Shakespeare from the curriculum on the grounds that there might be women and minority writers who might have been just as good, but were not published. In this case, there may well be unpublished sharpening masters. However, both Wootz and Shakespeare are published! :) :)
Being serious again, I really believe that although some of your sharpening techniques may presently be reserved for high end work, just like advances in auto racing, some or all of them may filter down into more general use.
Keep up the good work.
Ken
Thank you, my friend.
The fact is that I was born without any freehand talent that might be equaled to Shakespeare's in the sharpening.
It is Tormek that made it all possible for me, and where i don't use Tormek, is still its principles just applied differently.